What are your best tips for hosting international guests? [Updated]

[Lizzie]

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are are having a great week. 🙂

On a daily basis you welcome guests from all over the world into you home and in doing so have gained some amazing experiences. To celebrate this, Airbnb would love to write a blog article on our community’s best tips for hosting international guests! What are yours?

Are there any particular things you have updated in your listing to help welcome folks traveling from afar or perhaps you may have adjusted your hosting to anticipate what they might need? 

Please share your best tips here and we'll include some of them in the Airbnb Blog and in the Host Newsletter! 🙂

Thanks so much,

Lizzie

-----------------------Edited Sep 15th 2017----------------------

Update:

Hello everyone,

Some time ago you may remember I created this thread here asking you to share your tips on hosting and welcoming international guests! I am pleased to let you know that a selection of tips were collected from here (along with the other CC languages) and were turned into a blog post: Hosting International Guests! 

I want to thank everyone who shared their tips and participated in this discussion and congratulations to @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0, @Helga0, @Huaai0, @Momi0, @Kim-and-Jen0, @Louise0, @Beth44, @Nina115, @Anastasia5, @Paul154, @Amy38, @Josie23, @Mariann4 for being included, please feel free to continue sharing your tips, it is fantastic to hear them! 🙂

Enjoy!
Lizzie

[Huaai0]

@Lizzie@Bruce43@Momi0@Helga0@Anastasia5@

While we are all romantisizing hosting international guests, I would like to emphasize the importance of protecting ourselves from getting bitten and especially from unknowingly getting involved in organized crimimality such as international human trafficking. While we open our door to international strangers, we should not forget about block watch, foot patrol, and monitoring all suspicious activities in our neighbourhood. 

I have found online that in this quiet and peaceful city of about 400K, during the past quater there have been over 800 B&Es (break and enter). So when guests ask me, "Is it safe here?" I would say, "Yes and No." Yes because sometimes we leave our door unclocked all day and nothing happens. No because of the statistics on the official website of the police and because of all the news coverage once a homocide or gang shooting occurs. 

I've hosted an international guest who claimed to have no credit cards but only cash, an international guest who came as a visitor but who told me he was "working" all day. Recently I also read a news report about individuals using Airbnb as brothels. We should all keep these things in mind. 

[Helga0]

What's wrong with working all day? My husband would start grumbling after four hours and throw a fit after me working six hours a day during holidays, which is understandable from his point of view, but what danger is it to a host? If you are not shared room hosting, where it's annoying to have guests at home all the time, working seems not dangerous? Beats lazy guests in my opinion. 

[Helga0]

@Huaai0, it seems a bit late to harden my heart and so I'll reseign myself to my fate of getting milder and milder over the years 😉 

What made laugh out reading your post: nobody ever saw romanticism in me. 😉

I'd say you confound precaution, fear and some darker ideas. Nothing of what you mention has a higher probability to occur with foreigners. 

International sex trafficking? I only know one case of a brothel being set up, which happened about 30 years ago, whena women from whom I rented a floor of her house a few years later, had rented tge whole house to some locals, who set up a brothel. It was a longterm lease, whilst she was absent and she had a hard time to get the tenants out. 

You should apply caution and evaluate your guests, but the risk is higher with locals than with foreigners. If they pay extra luggage on prohibitive rates, they won't pack your towels ot tv. If they have to go back to another country, they are less likely to squat. People who smuggle in women to force them into prostitution are highly organised and it's a longterm investment. A pimp takinv his two favorite girls and booking the next flight for holidays, with the girls working a bit to finance the trip, that's a romantic idea. 

[Dan-and-Micha0]

We aren't getting many international guests this year.  Whereas in the past usually 1/4 to 1/2 of our summer guests are international.  It's being called the Trump Slump.  

[Lynnie1]

We have a board with different plugs.

I rearrange the wall art, brochures and books to highlight ones relevant to their language/country.

The food in the welcome basket is customized depending on where they're from. For example, French people tend to love the farmhose brown bread and salmon.

If there are children, I have one or two of lots of different drinks for them to try.

People from former British colonies would be more familiar with Irish things than other countries, such as remembering to flick a switch to turn on the hot water, so I give more detailed instructions to others.

If they are from a cold place, I keep the heat down. If from a warm place, I keep it warm and point out the heaters and use heavier duvets.

If sending messages to Americans, I use 12-hour times, others, 24-hour clock.

I try to use a few words in their language and change the way I write and speak, depending on how good their English is.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Lizzie Thank you very much for your nice post Lizzie, i really appreciate that my advice was selected as a tip for hosting international guests!!!

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Lizzie I have just read the blog concerning hosting international guests and i was very happy to see my tip there but unfortunately my middle name Kumarsingh was wrongly typed. The editor typed Oomesh Kamarsingh instead of Oomesh Kumarsingh. It would be nice if you could ask them to do the correction there. Thank you!!!

[Lizzie]

Hello @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0,

It is lovely to hear from you I hope things are good. 

It is fantastic to hear you are pleased to be included, it is great to see so many of our community tips have been made into a blog article. 

I will make sure you name is update, I am so sorry about that. 🙂

Lizzie

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Lizzie Thank you for your fast response! Things here are going smoothly here and i am preparing myself for the upcoming tropical summer season thank you and i hope things are great on your side too. It was a fantastic idea to pick tips from the community keep it up!!! Thank you for everything and have a nice weekend : )

[Lizzie]

Aw thanks @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0, you are very kind. Yes, I agree I and I am sure this is just the start! 🙂

Have a lovely weekend. I am sure it is beautiful where you are at the moment! It is very Autumnal here, the leaves are starting to drop (Autumn/Fall, is my favourite season – so I am quite happy!)

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Lizzie It is a real pleasure for me to have such a lovely and kind community manager like you and I really appreciate your work!!! 

How I miss London during the Autumn/Fall season. That brings me some nice memories walking in the parks which were covered with maple leaves. 

Enjoy your weekend Lizzie : )

[Heather272]

Nearly all my international guests would ask how they should heat water for tea. I thought it strange, of course, just boil the water on the stove top! But then I noticed when I traveled abroad nearly all accomodations had an electric tea kettle (and a coffee pot was not common at all!). In the US, electric tea kettles are not common. I had never seen one before traveling internationally where there was one in even the most basic of accomodations. I realized international guests must be accustomed to an electric tea kettle in nearly all accomodations, so I bought one, and it has been used by every international guest since!

[Lizzie]

This is very true @Heather272. Here in the UK, it is very rare to find a household that doesn't have a kettle, but then we tend to drink quite a lot of tea here! 🙂 Coffee pots are becoming a little more common now though, but instant coffee is regularly found if you are staying in places. 

It is great to hear this was such a success with your guests.

[Susie5]

@Lizzie, I have a tea related question for you.  What kind of milk do British people prefer for their tea? My options are whole milk, 2%, skim milk, or cream... I lived in London for 10 years and was always the one for whom the "builder's sugar" was brought out, but I can't remember what milk everyone used! Thanks in advance!

[Lizzie]

Hello @Susie5,

Now this is my type of question! hehe

In the UK, I would say in general most people are happy to drink semi-skimmed milk (or the green coloured top), which I believe is most similar to 2% in the US. I use to only be able to drink tea with sugar, but it is funny how much I struggle drinking tea with sugar in it now! 

Do you find you guests drink much tea or coffee? 🙂